The irony of the whole incident is the fact that I am the one who is restricted to 33bhp for 2 years. Had the road not been wet then I could perhaps have shot off in front of him and then slowed down once I was safely in lane, but even so I am not sure that he would have let me re-enter the lane too easily.

This is the daft thing, I was reading your post and nearly straight away thought "why didn't you just gun it past him". It's tricky to comment without being there, but a 17yr old is unlikely to be driving anything over a 1.2ltr car. And an SV650 could maybe out accelerate a porche 911 on a good day.
But as I said, dont know the ins/outs not being there, plus it was wet, plus you've only got 33break, plus thats put down via a V-Twin which again can get _interesting_ in the wet.
And the peak power of the sv is 9300rpm! Not great when you need it asap. Great fun in the dry though!

I think we need automated .50cal points at each corner in order to shoot at chavs as they speed past. In my town they've put all lumps in the road everywhere and the chavs just go over them at 100MPH anyway. They just knacker the suspension and tyres of cars driven by honest people.

As far as I'm concerned what the chav did to Ben was little less than an attempt on his life and should be treated as such.

I can't stand these chav car users ('drivers' in this case is too good of a word) either - because of them I have to pay more for my car insurance even though I don't drive round like a maniac putting lives at risk (not that you can very easily in a Daewoo Matiz with a 900 engine)

Ben, get yourself some bike boots with great, heavy, steel toe caps in them. Next time a chav tries that just kick the side of his door in with the boots, do that enough enough times and b******s will start to learn not to mess with bikers. I've bin a biker since 1977 (Honda SS50, Yam XS250, GS550, and now a Yam FJ1200) and I'm apalled at the way most car drivers act on the roads these days. You have my sympathy.

I've noticed both an increase in good and bad drivers. I see a lot more drivers deliberately moving their cars over to let bikes filter though.

I've also seen a lot more drivers who "switch off" due to day dreaming or being on the mobile or fixing makeup in the mirror at traffic lights.

One morning I made some comment about how I thought one driver had deliberately moved their vehicle more into the middle of the road when I was filtering through stationary traffic. One lass in the office said "oh yeah, I do that, why the hell should bikers not have to sit in the queue like the rest of us" and this from someone who has a degree and is a qualified Accountant!

Normally you are right I would have smoked him, especially had I been on my CBR125R (though the performance is a little less ) unfortunately I had only picked the bike up that day and obviously the change between a sports bike posture and a streetfighter psture left me a little cautious of trying the bike too hard just yet.

The pill away on the bike is quite impressive even at the lower end, had it not been wet then I would certainly have considered shooting off past him, and with heinsight wish I had risked it

Got some And they ahve been used for that use several times, including when someone thought they would overtake my CBR125R because I was taking longer to get past the lorry I was overtaking than they liked (it wouldn't have mattered if that stretch of the a14 had 3 lanes )

I have quite a good memory for cars, though not reg plates so if I see him about again and am sure it is him he may find that he doesn't get such an opportunity again.

Gordon: why not go one step further and add outward-facing spikes that can penetrate tyres? Very James Bond

Because if you got close enough to use them the silly b***ard would probably panic and swerve towards you!

The filtering argument always makes me laugh, I regularly get honked at by drivers (Ipswich drivers tend to be grumpy) and I can never stop thinking If yyou could you would. The number of times I have seen drivers shoot up the wrong lane just to try and sneak into a queue of traffic.

My answer to the Why should?? question is simple, we don't cause traffic jams, you never see a 5 mile tailback of bikes, or bikers causing congestion by rubber necking at accidents, so why should we sit in a mess of their making?

Having said that there is one guy I see nearly every morning when Im leaving for work and without fail he always lets me out. Bizzare the differences.

Chavs round here all drive some pretty heavy machinery, there is the odd nova and corsa about but other than that they are all spaceships effectively.

Was an unfortunate incident, had it happened today when I was more used to the bike after a few days of riding (I have only not got back on after and accident once and thats because I couldn't) it would have turned out very differently, I have been round that roundabout so many times on my old bikes, so now that I am more accostomed to the bike I should be able to fly around it (not that I am going to try just yet )

EDIT: Your figures are correct apart from one slight technicality. the restriction only affects the top-end power so at the lower end the torque is the same as if the bike was not restricted. Does make for a fun time had my girlfriedn on the back as we went down the A14, because of the wind distortion I though I had a police car behind us somewhere and in fact it was her shrieks - funny though when we got to our destination she wanted to get straight back on!

Well in my case I did what a lot of women do - buy a vehicle on looks !

I was advised by the salesman to go for an RD250 instead (which would have been far more sensible - lighter and quicker) but oh no, I knew best. Gotta have the XS, it looks pretty in red and anyway I don't want a two-stroke.

Two strokes? Smelly, oily beasts that usually sound like washing machines and have very little engine breaking, that was my impression after trying a mates Kawasaki 250 triple. The Yam XS machines were all great at handling, rock solid on the road, especially with Dunlops. Used to get the pegs down on almost every corner with that one, great time! And yes the XS did look better, mine was the silver with black.

I think you made a good choice having spent a large amount of my teenage years in a amtes garage whilst he stripped the engine of his RD yet again, they were not the most reliable of machiens though they were definitely faster than the XS

Gordon wrote:Two strokes? Smelly, oily beasts that usually sound like washing machines and have very little engine breaking,

The only two stroke I have ever owned was a KDE125, and the points you mention certainly applied, but I have to say it was far nippier than the XL125 Honda I had. Quite frankly, with the XL I think I could have got from A to B quicker on foot. It eventually got nicked from my garage and that was the last I saw of it.

Gordon wrote:Two strokes? Smelly, oily beasts that usually sound like washing machines and have very little engine breaking

Not so sure about smelly & oily, and my Kettle (Suzuki GT750) definitely didn't sound as smooth as a washing machine (it had raucous expansion chambers that gave a higher reading on a decibel meter at tickover than they did at full throttle !), but I'd agree with the lack of engine breaking. Came as quite a surprise when I got back on a 4-stroke.
Fantastic bike... wish I'd never sold it, but I was broke at the time and it needed money spending on it to stop it completely rotting away.